The dojo where I train holds fight nights every so often, and when I happen to bring a camera, I get a great seat pressed right up against the cage.
I've shot a few of these now, and one thing I've learned is to pick a good spot and stay put. The action in the cage moves around a lot, and no matter where you stand, you might have something or you might not. But every time you move, you're missing everything, so by staying in one place, you can eliminate dead time and increase your chances of getting a reasonable shot. Or hundreds.
This cage is smaller than UFC standard, and my 28-70 f2.8 was all I needed for the night. I've shot other fights with two lenses (the second was either a 17-35 or 70-200) but I'm all about simplifying lately. 28 is wide enough to get 2 people full length (if they are in the middle of the cage) and 70 is tight enough to get a decent grimace-in-response-to-a-front-kick-to-the-gut.
Lighting? The flash/camera-to-subject distance was constantly changing, so E-TTL was the only way to fly. The ceiling is low and white, and I had a white wall behind me, so bouncing was the obvious choice. In fact, I never use direct, on-camera flash when there is a surface to bounce flash from. Like never. You shouldn't either. Its just poor form.
click on the image above or here for the full set on flikr.
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